


Technical Difficulties

by jaggedwolf



Category: The Strange Case of Starship Iris (Podcast)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Humor, Rumor Crew, Season 1-Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:21:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21813613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaggedwolf/pseuds/jaggedwolf
Summary: Being the team hacker wasn’t always the most glamorous job.Three times tech got the better of Arkady in front of Violet, and one time it didn’t.
Relationships: Arkady Patel & Rumor Crew, Violet Liu/Arkady Patel
Comments: 24
Kudos: 82
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Technical Difficulties

**Author's Note:**

  * For [moriann](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moriann/gifts).



_One_

Arkady kissed her way along the underside of Violet’s jaw, the perfect position to hear Violet’s quiet little breaths as she ground against Arkady’s thigh. Really quiet. There had to be other noises she could get Violet to make. Arkady slid her thumb to toy with a bare nipple, added a little more pressure with her leg, and was rewarded with a slightly louder gasp. 

“Arkady.” Violet’s voice came out in a huff.

Arkady lifted her head up so Violet wouldn’t miss the smug look on her face. “Yeah?”

Face flushed, Violet raised an eyebrow at her. It was a sight only made funnier by Arkady’s hand on her boob. “Why,” asked Violet, “are you still dressed? You didn’t even take off your jacket.”

“I got distracted,” said Arkady impishly. That wasn’t a lie.

“You could take it off now,” said Violet, her gaze sharp.

“Bossy, Liu.” Arkady obliged. “You know this ship already has a captain, right?”

“Uh-”

Whatever Violet was going to say was interrupted by Arkady’s comms going off. “Incoming call to Arkady Patel from Krejjh”, went the dead lady’s voice in her ears.

At this time of night. Shit. Arkady accepted the call, flipping it to speaker, and rolled off Violet and the bed to land on her feet. “What’s the situation, Krejjh?”

Violet gave Arkady a confused look. Arkady quickly decided that looking at a shirtless Violet Liu while talking to Krejjh wasn’t something she was interested in, and busied herself with getting her weapons back in order.

“Hey there, First Mate Patel!” went Krejjh’s voice, bounding with energy and filling the room. “Remember how you solved that weird thing with the downloads last week? Do you think you could do that again?”

“What.” Arkady paused midway through pulling a holster on to her arm. 

“You know, we’d gotten part of it on the local connection and part of it not?”

“This is about your soap opera episodes,” gritted out Arkady. From the bed, it sounded suspiciously like Violet was trying not to laugh. 

“Actually, Crewman Jeeter got this new edition of one of his favourite translations.”

“Just to clarify,” said Arkady, wondering if she could get a headache from a single call, “there is no emergency. We’re not under attack. You don’t need me to man the particle beams. You want me. To fix. A download error.”

“Yeah, if you’re not busy.”

Arkady rubbed her temple with her knuckles. “I am. Busy, in fact” 

Violet burst out into a fit of loud giggles. Arkady couldn’t help but glare in her direction to find Violet mouthing “Sorry” once she’d recovered.

Krejjh gasped loudly. “Science Officer Liu! Is that you?”

“This is not a surprise,” said Arkady flatly, to no one’s acknowledgement.

“Hey Krejjh.” Violet let out another laugh. “How’s it going?”

“Fantastic. I’ll let you two crossing orbits be. Krejjh out.” As the comms blinked out, Arkady swore she could actually hear them grinning.

“Crossing orbits?” asked Violet.

“Probably some poetic metaphor in Dwarnian.”

“On the bright side,” said Violet, a twinkle in her eye, “no life-threatening emergency today.”

“Yet.” Arkady shed her jacket and holsters with it, clambering back on to bed. She shook her head. “Sorry about that. I don’t really ever switch my comms off.”

Was that weird? That was probably kind of weird. 

“I’m the only person on this ship with any real medical expertise. I keep mine on too.” Violet smiled wryly, her hands skimming Arkady’s sides. “Though, my most likely patient is you. Lower chance of late-night calls.”

‘I think the others are a little used to me having nothing better to do,” admitted Arkady. “Except now there’s you.”

Violet smirked. “Am I a better thing to do, then?”

“Uh,” fumbled Arkady, “I didn’t mean like tha- not that you’re not or that I don’t-well, we’re gonna-”

Violet finally took mercy on her and pulled her in for a kiss. The two of them fell onto the bed, limbs entangled.

Their comms stayed thankfully silent for the rest of the night.

_Two_

It was supposed to be a simple, routine con. The kind Arkady could do blindfolded and with her hands tied behind her back.

Show up to an obscure agricultural tax office that had the financial records they needed. Exploit the fact that while the servers with the records weren’t connected to outside networks, the servers with the voice records used for authorization purposes were a different matter. Easy enough to hack in, replace their target’s file with a recording of her own voice. 

Only, when Arkady had leaned over the counter to speak into the microphone, the receptionist’s poorly hidden reaction to her screen’s response suggested that something more than a failed authorization had been afoot. The armed goon that burst through the door behind her a second later confirmed as much.

The receptionist’s screen thrown wildly at the goon and a hasty exit to the stairwell later, Arkady was dashing down the stairs, Violet at most a step behind her. 

Alarms blared all around them, red lights flashing against the wall. Over unseen speakers, a voice declared “Known criminal Sister Theresa Margaret is in the building.”

Huh. Guess this wasn’t because of the whole nanoswarm mess. They rounded another flight of stairs, and Violet sounded disbelieving as she asked, “What did you do while pretending to be a nun?”

“I don’t remember!” Arkady genuinely didn’t. “Or why they’d have my voice!”

“Hmm,” came Park’s clipped voice over the private comm channel they had open with the _Iris_. “Hold on a second. Looks like you committed...tax fraud? On behalf of a farm miles away from the city?” 

From somewhere above, a door burst open with several footsteps running through. Goddammit. All they needed was a group from below, and then the two of them would be well and truly trapped. 

“Maybe look up my crimes later, get us a way out of here first?” suggested Arkady.

“Brian’s working on that,” replied Park. “I’m afraid I have far less skill in comprehending architectural diagrams.”

On the third floor landing, Violet held up a hand and stopped, panting heavily. “In here.” She gestured to the door. 

“Uh-”

“It’s the floor where the private contractors work.” A quick smile flashed across Violet’s face. “They have a different schedule, today’s a holiday for them.”

“Lucky them.” The door was locked, but that had never stopped Arkady before. The two of them were soon past it. Arkady jammed it shut behind them for good measure. 

True to Violet’s claims, there wasn’t a soul or sound to be found on this level. They lingered by the door long enough to hear the crowd of footsteps echo down past them without pause. 

Brian’s voice came through, “Wait, what floor are you guys on?”

“Three,” replied Arkady. She and Violet slowly advanced down the empty hallways. “We turned left after the stairwell doors.”

“Keep going, take the next right, and you should reach the fire escape out the window.” 

“Got it.”

“Told Captain Tripathi where to pick you guys up.”

“I think we can see the fire escape now. Thanks,” said Violet.

“Yeah, thanks Jeeter,” echoed Arkady. 

“So, farm crime?” asked Violet when it was her turn to climb over the window sill to the fire escape. 

“Hey, I didn’t even see the farm,” defended Arkady.

“You saved it half my old salary in taxes a year with a single phone call,” added Park unhelpfully. At least he had the grace to sound impressed, but really, did the guy have nothing more useful to do? 

Park continued, “The alert is still contained to the building. It’ll be some time before they contact the city - admitting mistakes hardly pays off in the IGR, to our benefit.”

Fine, maybe Park was useful after all.

Sana’s car screeched to a halt right as they stepped off the fire escape on to solid ground, and just as quickly sped off once they had piled in. 

“No one hurt?” asked Sana without her taking her eyes off the road. 

“Nope,” said Arkady. 

“No, Captain,” confirmed Violet. 

Sana let out a sharp, short breath, more exhilarated than dismayed. “Of all the jobs to come back to us, Arkady…”

“You can say that again.” Arkady kept an eye on the road around them. “That was a weird trade. I’m surprised the IGR even kept that old voice data around.”

Arkady squinted at Violet, who had a familiar crease in her forehead. “You have a million and one questions, don’t you?”

“Wouldn’t you? I’m sure it’s an interesting story.” 

“Not really,” said Arkady, but she began telling it anyway.

_Three_

A sharp, orderly knock rapped against the medbay door. “Um,” came McCabe’s voice. That scintillating statement was followed up by utter silence.

This beanbag wasn’t nearly as comfortable as the one destroyed with the _Rumor_ , but it was still with reluctance that Arkady lifted her head up to glance at the door, careful not to stir the sleeping Violet beside her. A strand of hair had caught in Violet’s mouth. Arkady resisted the urge to free it. 

She grabbed her computer from the floor, and went over to the door. As she’d expected, on the other side stood McCabe who quickly pretended they were completely relaxed. Arkady hadn’t expected Krejjh standing behind them, all their eyes frowning at the screen in their hands.

“There’s a technical issue,” said McCabe, which was officially Arkady’s least favourite way to be told there was a technical issue.

Krejjh jabbed at the screen before handing it over. “We’re all getting a ton of messages. Doesn’t seem to be any meaning behind their content or who’s sending’em.”

Arkady registered what she was looking at. The first message in Krejjh’s inbox was in Dwarnian, so she ignored that. The second was asking Krejjh to reset their credentials for some pilot thing. So was the third. The fourth asked the same but for a different corner of the net. The approximately forty or so messages after that followed a similar pattern.

“It seems to be...spam?” suggested McCabe, as if the concept was absurd to them.

Arkady squinted at them. “Have either of you been doing weird lookups on the net?” she asked half-heartedly, handing Krejjh back their device to pull out her own. Yep, her own inbox looked about as clogged up. She flicked open one message, fumbling to close it when it started blaring a loud voice notifying her that she had won a shitton of money and all she needed to do was something stupid, like type in credentials right here.

“Um, P-Arkady?” asked Mccabe.

“Yeah?”

“All our messages are routed through E.L.L.A. Wouldn’t it block these types of scams?” McCabe sounded like they half-expected the answer to be nope, kid, once you’re an insurgent like the rest of us you have to deal with spam messages. Part of the deal. 

“She should,” acknowledged Arkady. “Though”-and here Arkady dismissed her inbox, pulled up the notes for E.L.L.A’s latest updates, frowning more with every sentence she read. That was annoying. “I pushed off E.L.L.A’s latest security update, it clashed with a couple of the extensions I’ve added to her.”

Krejjh breathed out deeply. “First Mate Patel, if I have to be Stretch-”

“Wasn’t only the Dwarnian vocab one. No need to martyr yourself yet,” Arkady replied. “I can probably figure it out in a couple of hours, lemme just make sure no one does anything stupid first.” Arkady activated her comms. “Arkady Patel to all crew. Don’t follow the instructions of random messages you receive, unless you want to fall for a phishing scam. That’s just embarrassing.”

McCabe nodded sharply. Krejjh’s eyes twisted. “Phishing? Catching those weird little earth animals that can breathe in water somehow?”

“They have gills,” said Violet’s sleepy voice from inside the room. A yawn followed, and Violet joined them at the doorway. 

“Gills,” said Krejjh slowly.

Violet rubbed her eyes. “Um, similar to lungs, but they extract oxygen from water. There are slits along the skin to let water pass through them.”

“Oh! Dwarnians have those too,” declared Krejjh.

McCabe tried to pretend they didn’t immediately stare at Krejjh’s neck. Violet looked like she was about to ask Krejjh several lengthy questions on Dwarnian biology. Arkady snorted. “No you don’t.”

“Nope, we sure don’t,” said Krejjh amiably. “I was pulling you fellas’ legs. Did it work?” 

“I’m sure I could have found a Dwarnian anatomy chart that would have contradicted you,” said Violet.

Krejjh grinned. “But how many would you have found with gills labeled?”

“...Point taken.”

“As thrilling as this discussion is,” Arkady cut in, “this has nothing to do with the animal. It’s relying on idiots typing their credentials in any old place. “

McCabe straightened their back, their voice dismissive. “Who would do that? Everyone knows not to-” They cut themselves off at the sheepish look on Krejjh’s face.

Arkady handed Krejjh’s device back to them. “Well, kid, looks like the Dwarnians are above such inane scams. I’ll let you guys know when I’ve figured this out.”

Once the others left, Arkady and Violet went back into the medbay. Arkady slumped back on to the beanbag, and got to work. A yawn from Violet echoed through the room. Arkady jerked her head up, surprised to find Violet awkwardly standing by the beanbag instead of on it. 

“I should probably continue my nap in my own room, huh?” said Violet.

Arkady shrugged. “There’s still space.” Anticipating Violet’s next objection from the look on her face, Arkady continued, “Liu, I’ve worked in way more distracting circumstances than you sleeping. Your bed’s probably more comfortable though.”

A strange flash of recognition crossed Violet’s face. She shook her head, and curled up on the beanbag once more, warm against Arkady’s side. She mumbled against Arkady’s shoulder. “This is plenty comfortable.”

Arkady started typing again. “Told you the beanbag was a good idea.”

_Plus One_

“You’re not going to believe how the engine retrofit went.” Arkady slipped into Violet’s room. She made sure to lock the door. While the others were far less likely to show up unannounced here than at Arkady’s, because her friends were blatantly unfair like that, it didn’t hurt to be safe. “I didn’t even know Tripathi and Krejjh could argue with each other abo-”

Violet was crying, blinking furiously at her screen with her blanket pulled around her. Arkady’s unfinished sentence seemed to have gotten her attention. Her eyes darted to Arkady, and then to the screen. “Sorry, I-I lost track of the time.”

Arkady considered her options as she approached the bed, chucking off her boots. Simple seemed best. If it wasn’t, Violet would tell her. “What’s wrong?”

Violet sniffed. “It’s nothing.”

As Arkady wrapped an arm around Violet, an unhelpful fact struck her: she’d never seen Violet cry before.

There were so many other moods she’d caught Violet in, over these months of knowing her. Braver than any civilian ought to be; happily tipsy; focused in thought; annoyingly set in her ways; terrified out of her mind. But never like this, with her breaths hitched and tears rolling down her cheeks. 

Arkady would have said it was odd that she hadn’t noticed the lack of crying till right now, given all the bullshit they’d found themselves in, but “shitty” might be a better descriptor than “odd”. Her eyes caught on Violet’s screen. _PROFILE NOT FOUND_ , it read.

“Trouble finding an old friend?” asked Arkady.

“No.” Violet took a ragged breath. “I know, I can’t make contact with my family. Even though they know I’m alive, because the IGR put out public warnings about all of us. It’s not fair to put that risk on any of them. But, um, one of my cousins, she’s always kind of documented her entire life on the public net. I used to think it was silly, but now…”

“Decent way to keep tabs on your loved ones.” 

“Until two days ago.” Violet tapped the screen, her voice solidifying. “Winnie’s always been whimsical, she could have deleted it for no reason, but I don’t think so. She loved uploading those photos. I keep thinking, what if the IGR got to her, it’s not like they ever need a real reason. What if they’re trying to scrub her off the net, and if they did that to her, who else in my family could they be going after? Already have gone after. And then I wonder if I’ve sent my brain down another useless spiral.” 

Through the blanket, Arkady squeezed Violet tight against her. “Not gonna lie, Liu, I’d jump to that thought too. Though...do you want me to try tracking her down?”

“Could you?”

“People are not as smart at cleaning up after themselves as they think they are. Whether it’s her or the IGR.” 

Violet passed the device over, and Arkady got lost in the usual mess of net-tracking, following the footprints left behind that were only half-erased. Another clue, another guess, a different service from the old one and-

“Ta da,” said Arkady, handing the computer back to her. “She set up a new profile. Totally different username. According to the description, her old profile got hacked by a vengeful ex, so she decided to get rid of it entirely.”

“I never li”-Violet’s brief scowl gave way to another choked sob. “Thanks, Arkady.” 

Violet looked impossibly small, even wrapped in the blanket as she was and shit, Arkady probably should’ve been patting Violet reassuringly on the back or something, instead of completely ignoring her crying girlfriend while figuring this mystery out. Violet, for her part, kept looking at the screen.

Violet sighed. Her body slackened against Arkady’s. “I was just being stupid, sorry.” She swiped away some tears with the end of her pajama sleeve. 

“Liu. Are you seriously apologizing for crying?” Arkady snorted. “Remember when I lost my goddamn mind because Tripathi went off comms for a spell?”

“Yes.” A small smile crossed Violet’s face, and Arkady figured she could count that as a win. A small one. Violet continued, “Uh, do you remember how we confirmed the other Violet’s identity when we first made contact with her?”

“I do” Arkady had to admit, her notions of life at Harmony College were rusty, but Other-Violet’s line about weepy freshmen had been pretty bleak.

“Yeah.” Violet had stopped crying, and was speaking in that steady, deliberate manner she did sometimes. “You’re probably the first person to have caught me crying since then.” Her voice turned faux-enthusiastic. “Congratulations!”

“Shit.” That had to be what, a decade?

“It was good advice. It helped.” Violet’s hand emerged from the blankets to take Arkady’s. “It’s hard, sometimes, convincing myself what used to help...doesn’t anymore.”

“I get that.” Not like Arkady had exactly been a joy to work with back when she’d first joined Sana on the _Rumor_. And hell, Sana’d had the leg-up of being a Lander. One of _those_ Landers, even. “Old habits.” 

They sat there in silence for a moment, leaning against each other, Arkady listening to Violet’s breathing return to normal. Violet leaned forward to switch off the computer, and when she turned to Arkady, she started. “You came from working in the engine room,” said Violet slowly.

“That’s what I said.”

“The sheets are going to smell like engine oil again,” complained Violet.

“Think it’s a little late to worry about that, Liu, I’ve been sitting on this bed for a while.”

Violet wrinkled her nose. The resulting expression was so cute that Arkady wanted to kiss her, so she did, right on the nose, and Violet let out a huff of laughter. Another win. 

“Fine,” grumbled Violet, with more amusement in her voice than irritation. She moved her computer off the bed. “You’re lucky I love you.” 

Violet froze, her fingers stilling where they were intertwined with Arkady’s.

Well. That was new. For them. Apparently a slip of the tongue, judging from Violet’s reaction, and an unexpected one, given how careful Violet usually was with her words. Arkady nudged her with her shoulder, warm from something other than her own body heat and simply said, “Yeah. I am.”

**Author's Note:**

> In part three, Arkady is technically incorrect that phishing has nothing to do with the word “fishing”. See here for more: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2575094/sidebar--the-origins-of-phishing.html 
> 
> Happy Yuletide! Your prompt on budget-friendly tech problems was particularly inspiring.


End file.
